Needing to trim costs to match funding resources, Kiowa County Commissioners agreed on a 2-1 vote in special meeting Thursday morning to award Snodgrass and Sons Construction of Wichita a contract, based on a revised bid, to build the new Road and Bridge facilities on South Grove in Greensburg.
With $2.96 million available to build the new highway department facilities, the County had requested, through architectural firm MVP, also of Wichita, all three previous bidders to revise their bids to come into line with that amount.
Snodgrass’s initial base bid of $3.154 million had been lower than that of Compton of Wichita at $3.321 million and JAG Construction of Dodge City at $4.1 million. While both Compton and JAG declined to submit a new bid in line with a total of just under $3 million, Snodgrass did so with a resultant base bid of $2,815,792 emerging. Addition of options for a bridge crane ($51,000), vehicle lift ($9,400) and fuel tank painting ($19,000) brought the total bid to $2,995,244, or just $35,000 over the level sought by the County.
MVP architect Jeff Weiford narrated a lengthy list of modifications of Snodgrass’s initial bid used to bring its latest offer within haling distance of the County’s funding level. Some were cosmetic, such as substituting use of grass seed for sod for the lawn and elimination of trees in landscaping work, while others involved using manual, rather than powered gates and lighter doors in the shop area. One of the biggest money savers was eliminating radiant heat from the floor of the noxious weed building, thereby eliminating the need for 11 geothermal wells.
In voting against the contract awarded to Snodgrass, outgoing commissioner Earl Liggett voiced concern over the cost to taxpayers. He specifically referred to $300,000 being borrowed by the County from USDA and $400,000 of the County’s capital outlay funds being used to finance the project.
“So now we’re looking at $700,000 of taxpayers’ money being used for this,” Liggett said. “They taxpayers are out $700,000.” Liggett also seemed putout by eliminating the radiant heat from the noxious weed facility.
“With all these downgrades what we’re getting is pretty generic,” he said.
Liggett voiced a “no” vote following the positive votes by Chair Gene West and commissioner Don Richards, after which he rose and walked out of the meeting.
In addition to the $700,000 of funding from the USDA loan and capital outlay money, the County will rely upon nearly $309,000 in insurance proceeds, $888,000 from FEMA, $118,000 from the State of Kansas and a $100,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment meant to go toward rebuilding of the recycling building.
West addressed the apparent $35,000 shortfall by saying the bridge crane and vehicle lift could be paid for out of the County’s special equipment fund, which currently carries a balance of around $700,000.
Asked later if he were pleased with the outcome, Road and Bridge Superintendent Doyle Conrad said, “Oh yeah, whatever they decide and how they decide to do it I’m satisfied because we’re going to have a lot nicer shop and facility than we had before, even with the modifications they put in there. We’ll have so much more room. I’m hoping this can be done by next summer, because I can’t wait to move in.”
As for whether he was surprised by Liggett’s negative vote, Conrad said, “I was kind of stunned. I feel bad it was a 2-1 vote. I wish it could have been unanimous, but I guess Earl thought it’s going to cost taxpayers too much. I just wish it could have been a three to nothing vote. But I think when we look back on this in 15 years we’ll think it was the right thing to do.”
Greensburg, KS —
